Mizzou AD attacked Dawn Staley. Count UConn’s Auriemma among those surprised

He’s been around the game a long time, and he’s pretty much done it all, but even Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said he was surprised by the very public attack by Missouri athletics director Jim Sterk on South Carolina coach Dawn Staley this past week.

Auriemma, speaking after his No. 1 Huskies defeated the Gamecocks 83-58 on Thursday, gave his thoughts on the spat between the two SEC rivals, which was touched off by accusations of fans spitting on and using racial slurs toward Mizzou players after this past Sunday’s game.

Sterk then touched off a storm of controversy by saying Staley was responsible for “promoting” the atmosphere in which the alleged fan misconduct took place. Staley and USC AD Ray Tanner responded on Wednesday by saying the allegations had been investigated and no evidence had been found to support the charges.

Numerous members of the women’s basketball community came to Staley’s defense in the conflict, accusing Sterk of slander and calling his words cowardly.

Auriemma wasn’t quite as strong in his remarks, but he did say he thought that any coach publicly criticized by an AD faces a “daunting” situation.

“It’s not something you deal with every day,” he added. “It’s unusual for the words, the exchange of words back and forth. You usually don’t see that. I was very surprised at that.”

Auriemma also spoke about the atmosphere at Colonial Life Arena, and while he didn’t say whether he thought the spitting accusations were true or not, he did defend the rowdy environment in which the Missouri-USC game took place.

“My experience is, you go into an arena, especially for a conference game, it’s going to be somewhat hostile,” Auriemma said. “It’s going to be loud and it’s going to be aggressive and it’s going to be all those things, especially when you are playing the defending national champions and you just beat them. They’re not going to throw down roses and welcome you. ... I thought it was a great atmosphere to watch a game. I watched it on TV. What happened before, after, during, I don’t know.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Mizzou AD attacked Dawn Staley. Count UConn’s Auriemma among those surprised."